I shared a house with my friend Muhsin in the mid-90s. Muhsin is a runner so I started running too, but I lost the habit not long after I moved in with Emma in ‘98.

A little over a year ago, I went down to the Bay Area for work. I spent the weekend staying with old friends from Ireland, Paul and Maggie. Paul had been run down by a car while cycling at twilight at Christmas 2013. As part of his recovery, he had taken up running, and a few weeks before my trip, he challenged me to join him in a 5K run for charity.

And so I resumed my running habit, albeit in­ter­mit­tent­ly. I’m not a fast runner, averaging about 10 minutes per mile, but that’s not all that slow for a 50-year-old recre­ation­al runner.

I ran quite regularly while we were in Berlin in June and July this year. I’ve been less consistent since then. Lately I’ve been blaming the rain and the short days—we’ve had an ex­tra­or­di­nar­i­ly wet November and December in Seattle.

Today I wasn’t working, there was no rain this morning, and I had no excuses. So I pulled on my running shoes and went for a 3-mile run. I didn’t quite run the whole way, as I stopped and walked twice.

I aim to run a couple of more times over this long weekend. Call it an early start on a New Year’s Resolution.